Ekamra Walks, the weekly heritage tour for visitors to walk a stretch over 2 km covering some of the most beautiful, unique and well-preserved monuments of the city, began on Sunday with a promising start as more than 70 turned up to be part of the unique event.
The morning environment, coupled with the usual temple related rituals and practices, road-side markets and colourful flower-sellers with their vibrant marigold garlands of various hues made the visit a memorable one.
It can be mentioned here that the weekly Ekamra Walks will become a platform to re-introduce the historic treasure with monuments and archaeologically important works dating back from 5th Century AD to 13th Century AD.
Principal Secretary, Tourism Arti Ahuja inaugurated the event. Special Secretary General Administration Department Ashok K Meena, vice-chairman Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) and Commissioner Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) Dr Krishan Kumar, Director Tourism Nitin B Jawale and several senior officials from BDA, BMC and Odisha Tourism were present.
Before initiating the tour from the Mukteswar Temple, local guide Satya Mishra gave a detailed description on the genesis and evolution of the various temple designs in the region and how both the Buddha and Hindustani architecture and style have got infused into the process.
Director Tourism Nitin B Jawale said, “While as a city we are having the maximum concentration of monuments in the entire world, but the tourism related activities are to be more active and this weekly tour will be an added advantage.”
Principal Secretary, Tourism, Arti Ahuja hoped that if the tour can be tied with Higher Education Department and School and Mass Education Department, then it could generate more love, affection among the students. She also suggested the organisers to get in touch with the hoteliers and restaurant owners to devise sustainable formulae to run the walks.
After Mukteswar the two groups visited Parsurameswar, bank of Bindusagar, Ananta Vasudev, lingaraj, Chitrakarini, Vaitaal and Ekamra Van, the famous medicinal plant garden on the western bank of Bindusagar lake.
Visit to one of the two `Dharamsalas’on the Eastern bank of Bindusagar generated good response from the visitors as they entered one and listened to the history and saw its unique architecture. Both the low-cost pilgrimage rest houses were built during 1920s. Senior forest official Ashok Mishra explained the visitors regarding the concept of the medicinal plant garden and how three different themes have converged in a beautiful way to accommodate 220 varieties of plants with medicinal, religious, ritualistic and traditional needs.
He also added that while a portion of the medicinal plant garden has all its plant contents for curing ailments of males, the middle part is to cure female ailments and the other ones for paediatric use only. In a nutshell, while a part is for lord Shiva, another is for Devi Parvati and the last one for lord Ganesha, as per the design and arrangements of plants at Ekamra Van. The park is maintained by Forest Department.
The teams also had a memorable stay near the northern gate of lingaraj Temple and had a view from the visitors’ point. They also tested the famous sweet “Kora Khai’’ which is used as a “prasad’’ in the temples and some outlets, which, they claimed are being exported abroad for its unique taste.
While the Odisha Tourism, BDA and BMC provided the logistic support for the successful event, Detour Odisha organised it in a grand way.